The Outsider

Disclaimer: I do not own Hawaii Five-0
Summary: ONESHOT. Chin and Officer Lori Weston have a conversation about Five-0 and Kono in particular.
Spoilers: None really, unless you count the episode where Lori Weston is introduced, Episode 2:2 – Ua Lawe Wale.

A/N: So Season 2 has been pretty frustrating, no? This was just my way of addressing the extremely obvious lack of chemistry or fluidity with the addition of Lori to the team. She's not bad, she's tough, or acts tough, but sidelining Kono is messing with my KoVe mojo! BTW, there's no Steve/Kono here, just Chin and Lori talking.

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Five-0 Headquarters
Oahu

Something felt distinctly – off.

Out of sorts.

Odd.

Abnormal.

Unusual.

Weird.

Atypical.

Strange.

Out of the ordinary.

And Chin knew exactly what it was. He also wondered if she knew what it was.

She was after all, the outsider here.

Chin looked over at Officer Lori Weston and pondered whether he should say anything. Finally, he just decided to ask her.

"How are you liking it here?"

Lori looked up from the SMART table and smirked. "It's fine," she deadpanned.

Chin arched a brow. "Really?"

The blonde woman looked as if she was purposefully scowling.

"Come on, are we that bad?" asked Chin. "It's McGarrett isn't it? Or is it Danny?"

"What?" asked Lori, a bit surprised. "No. Neither."

"Then what?"

Lori tilted her head to the side as if she was thinking about how much she could actually say in confidence to Chin. Then, she realized, comparatively, to Steve and Danny, Chin was probably her safest bet.

"It just seems like – hmm, like you guys are lame."

"Excuse me?" Chin asked, clearly taking offense.

"Don't get me wrong," Lori said quickly. "I mean 'lame' in the sense that, something's missing here," she said as she gestured to the offices around her. "It's like you guys are normally a well oiled machine and all of a sudden, a part is missing and the three of you act like you're all desperately trying function normally."

Chin nodded and smirked.

"Was Officer Kalakaua that integral to the team? I mean, you guys don't seem to talk about her that much," Lori pointed out.

Chin looked down at the table and Lori could see the Hawaiian man work his jaw in contemplation.

"It's hard to talk about missing an appendage, I guess," replied Chin with a small smile. "Kono is very much a part of Five-0."

Lori nodded. "It's like – you guys lost your groove. You're all stilted and stiff."

Chin snorted and grinned, apparently she did notice something about them. "Yeah, you could say that."

"Does she know?" she asked.

"Know what?"

"How much she's missed here," Lori explained.

"No," Chin said shrugging and shaking his head.

Lori shifted her weight to lean against the table. "That's not right."

He nodded. "No, it isn't," he admitted. "But, how could you tell? I mean, you have no idea of what we were like before you got here."

She paused, clearly gathering her thoughts before speaking. "It's like, or rather, I feel like every interaction I have with any of you is forced. It feels, almost unnatural. Like there's an open wound here that's not healing, not progressing. Does that make sense?"

Chin looked apologetic suddenly. "We don't mean to be this way, it's just -"

"You had system, a dynamic, a – team," Lori said.

"Yeah. But still, I'm sorry if it seems that we're a little unfriendly and insincere."

"No need to apologize," she said waving a hand dismissively. "You're not at all disingenuous, you've all been extremely professional."

"In other words, cold?" he asked chuckling lightly.

"No, just trying really hard to adjust," Lori answered.

Chin snorted. "Frankly, I don't really want to. No offense."

"None taken," she said shrugging. "Like you said, Officer Kalakaua is part of Five-0."

End.

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A/N: Damn you PTB. Damn you. .: shakes fist, angrily:.